William painter



(No Model.)

W. PAINTER.

BOTTLE STOPPER.

No. 324,040. Patented Aug.' 11, 1885.

WITNESSES WWW 0, Attorney N. PETERS, Phuio-Lllhognpher, wamm mn, o. c

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

\VILLIAM PAINTER, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO LEWIS R. KEIZER, OF SAME PLACE.

BOTTLE-STOPPER.

.SPECIPIGATION forming part of Letters Patent No 324,040, dated August 11, 1885.

Application filed April 9, 1885. (No model.) I

To all whom it may concern: Be it know-n that I, WILLIAM PAINTER, of Baltimore, Maryland, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Bottle-Stoppers; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and accurate description of the same.

Elastic stoppers wholly of vulcanized rubber, or with a rubber shell covering a metal core, are in common use; but such stoppers IO are unsuited for many uses where elastic stoppers would be desirable, by reason of the dis agreeable taste and odor imparted to the contents of the bottle by the rubber, and also of the corrosive and destructive action of the r 5 contents upon such stoppers. The principal object of my invention is to provide an elastic stopper with a rigidly-attached, flexible, yielding, non-metallic protective coating interposed between the rubber stopper and the contents of the bottle, of such nature as not to affect said contents, and at the same time to resist their corrosive action.

Heretofore stoppers of rubber, as well as of cork and other materials, have been provided with a protecting non-oxidizable covering of metal foil to isolate them from the inclosed liquids; but such a covering is very different from my invention. A metal coating will not readily conform to the inequalities of surface which the elastic stopper conforms to with ease. \Vhen a stopper coated with foil is forced into a bottle, the foil does not yield as a mass, as the elastic stopper itself does, but by wrinkling and puckering, failing thereby to make a perfectly-tight joint. It is, moreover, very liable to rupture, is not durable enough for continuous use, and difficult to firmly attach to a rubber stopper. For these and other reasons it is not well adapted to the purpose.

v I am also aware that india-rubber stoppers have been coated with flock, but such coating, although fibrous, is incapable of holding a body of neutral paraffine to isolate the rubber from the liquid within the vessel. I am also aware that awooden bung or stopper has had its end saturated with paraffine to pre vent the escape of gases through the pores of the wood. This is different both in structure and capacity for use from my invention. I am also aware that with a vessel of wood lined with pitch it has been proposed to employ a cork covered with paraffine, to prevent it from sticking to the pitch; but this is not my invention, because it does not pos- 5 sess the means required to hold a sufficient quantity of parafiine to be effective for the purpose described by me.

My invention obviates these defects; and it consists, mainly, in permanently attaching to a rubber or other elastic stopper a cover or coating of some fibrous or textile material saturated or coated with some neutral substancesuch as paraffine or other resistant body not capable of affecting or being affected by the contents of the bottle.

The protectingcovering may envelop wholly or only partly that portion of the .stopper within the mouth of the bottle, or it may be applied to the inner end of the stopper as a disk of the same or a little greater diameter as the stopper itself, the disk in this case forming Virtually part of the body of the stopper.

For such stoppers as are employed in bottling' beer, mineral-water, '8tc., and which are used many times, it is important that the protecting-coating may be attached very firmly to the stopper.

Owing to the non-adherent property of rub- 8o ber very few substances will attach themselves strongly to it in the process of vulcanization; but textile or fibrous materials-such as cotton canvas, cloth, felt, &c.-can, by well-known processes, be very firmly united to the rubber during vulcanization. In practice I find this the best and cheapest means of attaching the fibrous material to the rubber, and prefer to vulcanize one or more layers or disks of cotton canvas directly on the inner 0 end of the stopper, and then saturate the fabric with parafline or other neutral resistant substance.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a section of a rubber stopper having the protecting coating attached to its end in disk form; Fig. 2, a sec-, tion of a similar stopper having the coating in cup form.

The invention is illustrated as applied to an ordinary beer-bottle stopper.

more layers of cotton canvas, woolen cloth, felt, or other fibrous material to which the rubber will firmly adhere.

I find it expedientto use two or threelayers of con'iparatively thin canvas to obtain the necessary thickness, rather than one piece of very heavy material, for the reason that with the finer and thinner fabric there is less disposition to ravel or fluff out.

The several layers of canvas are first united by a very thin coating of vulcanized rubber, and disks of proper size are then cut out of the sheet and placed in the molds in which the stoppers are formed and vulcanized. lmring the vulcauizing process the cotton disk is solidly attached to the rubber stopper. The outer surface of the fibrous disk is not coated with the rubber, nor does the rubber penetrate the body of the canvas. \Ve have tl'1(. refore a practically solid mass of cotton of one-eighth of an inch (more or less) in thickness at the end of the stopper, suftieientavhen saturated, to completely isolate the rubber from the inclosed liquid.

Fig. 2 shows a fibrous covering of cotton canvas of cup form, inelosing the end and lower portion of the stopper and vulcanized directly to it. In both these cases the canvas is finally saturated with melted paraftine and the stoppers are then ready for use. Other substances may be used to saturate the ab sol-bent coatingas, for instance, shellac dissolved in alcohol. Various other gums, resins, and resistant materials, (neutral as to the inclosed liquid,) melted or in solution, may also be applied to the fibrous covering; butI regard paraftine as the best, because of its tasteless, odorless, and highly-resistant prop erties.

Instead of saturating the canvas it may be coated with some protecting materialsuch as dissolved or melted gutta-perchawhich, while not actually penetrating the body of the canvas, will adhere firmly to its surface.

By using cotton canvas and vulcanizing it directly to the rubber I attain excellent results, because the union of the two materials is firm and solid, the canvas at the same time being well adapted to absorbing or retaining as a coating any protective substance that it maybe desirable to use. The function of the fibrous coating is, therefore, that of a medium for firmly uniting the protecting materials to the stopper. The rubber, canvas, and resistant substances are therefore practically homologous.

I have described a fibrous coating vulcanized directly to the rubber, because that proccss gives the best results; but it is practicable to cement or otherwise permanently attach such covering to the stopper after vulcanization, and saturate or coat it as before described.

Aside from its non-eorrodiblc and protecting qualities, a stopper having a fibrous covering saturated with paraifine, as described, is much more durable than one entirely of rubber, because the canvas will. withstand more wear.

Stoppers so made can be used of considerably larger size (with respect to the size of the bottle-mouth) than would be practicable if made wholly of rubber, because the lubricating nature of the parafllne coating greatly facilitates the entrance of the stopper. A much more secure closure of the bottle is thereby effected. The saturated disks (or the fibrous coating of cup form, when it is used) readily conform to the varying sizes and irregularities of bottle-mouths, yielding and adapting itself thereto and fitting as closely and mak ing as tight a closure as though the stopper were wholly of rubber. This is important in effecting a complete isolation of the rubber from the inclosed liquid. Inasmuch as the cotton disk, when saturated with parat'fine, is quite yielding, it may, as before stated, be made slightly larger than the body of the stopper, so as to insure a close tight fit.

"While I prefer to apply the neutral. protects ing substance to the fibrous coating after it has been attached to the stopper, it is not always necessary to do so. In some cases it may be applied before.

It is evident that various forms of rubber and other elastic stoppers, including those in the forms of .disks, rings, &c., for fruit-jars and other purposes, may be coated and protected in the manner described, and I do not therefore limit myself to those herein described.

I claim as new 1. An elastic stopper combined with a rig idly-attached covering of some fibrous material saturated or coated with a neutral substanee-such as parattine or some other resistant body--substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. An elastic rubber stopper having a covering of some fibrous material vulcanized thereto and saturated or coated with some new tral non-corrodible body, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

\VILLIAM PAIN'IEI-t.

IVitnesscs:

CHARLES H. Bonn, Lnwrs l". 'il'iniznn. 

